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The European deep seated unease with Washington is a serious issue for political actors, analysts and citizens alike, in both sides of the Atlantic. During the presidency of George W. Bush, European agreement with US foreign policy has declined dramatically. Public opinion polls concur that less than 15 percent of the European population supported the reelection of President George W. Bush. The widespread mistrust and strong negative sentiments for the Bush-administration begs the question: Does the image of a politician affect the way citizens evaluate news about policy proposals? In this paper we evaluate the impact of the image of George W. Bush and Nelson Mandela on the way European citizens understand policy issues as they appear in the news media. This research project draws on the literature of media effects, persuasion and information processing. When people are exposed to information from the mass media, they do not evaluate it in an unbiased manner. Instead they use simplified cues or shortcuts based on pre-existing preferences, which affect the way they understand the news. To examine how clearly citizens differentiate their attitudes about the personality of political actors from the policies they support, we analyze data from two experimental studies. We take actual policy proposals as they appear in the news, vary the name of the candidate supporting the proposal, and measure participants' reactions to the informational content of the articles, their approval of the proposed policy, and their evaluation of the candidates. We find that European citizens disapprove a policy promoted by George Bush driven mainly by their strong negative emotional response to this candidate. On the other hand they support a policy that carries the Mandela trademark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]